Custom python function not working

Question

I was learning Python from Codecademy.

There's a question:

Write a function, shut_down, that takes one parameter (you can use anything you like; in this case, we'd use s for string). The shut_down function should return 'Shutting down...' when it gets 'Yes', 'yes', or 'YES' as an argument, and 'Shutdown aborted!' when it gets 'No', 'no', or 'NO'.

In response to this, I wrote this:

def shut_down(n):
    p=n.lower()
    if p=="yes":
        return "Shutting down..."
    elif p=="no":
        return "Shutdown aborted!"

But, when I try to run it, the following error occurs:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'yes' is not defined*

Please help me...is there some kind of mistake in my code?

I'm guessing that you put yes instead of "yes" in the first line of your file, but you didn't show it so hard to say for sure... Advice: READ what the compiler says :) — BartoszKP
– BartoszKP, Commented Aug 25, 2013 at 13:58

score 3 · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-25 14:34:06Z

3

It is kinda hard to tell exactly what is going on since you didn't include line 1 (the line of the error). However, judging by my personal experience, I think your problem is one of two things:

1) You are on Python 2.x and using input when you should be using raw_input:

>>> input()
yes
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'yes' is not defined
>>> raw_input()
yes
'yes'
>>>

2) On the first line you have yes when you should have 'yes':

>>> yes
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
NameError: name 'yes' is not defined
>>> 'yes'
'yes'
>>>

In both cases (and any I missed), you are treating "yes" as a defined variable instead of a string.

edited Aug 25, 2013 at 14:34

answered Aug 25, 2013 at 14:27

user2555451

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1 Comment

Chaitanya Over a year ago

codecademy.com/courses/python-beginner-c7VZg/4/… Check this out... i tried everything but it's not working...

Aswin Murugesh · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-25 14:01:10Z

1

The above code works fine. May be the problem is, while you are calling the function, you have used shut_down(yes) instead of shut_down('yes')

answered Aug 25, 2013 at 14:01

Aswin Murugesh

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1 Comment

Chaitanya Over a year ago

actually there is a app that automatically test the code... so when i submitted it shows an error.

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